Belinda takes a field trip and learns sees some fantastic, magical animals.

Story

Belinda Bling knew that there are some things in the world that never happen.

For example, pigs don't fly, horses don't talk, and cows don't have milkshakes come out of them, just milk.

But what if some of the things Belinda knew would never happen, actually did?

Belinda's school class was going on a field trip. A couple of times a year all the children would climb into a school bus and ride somewhere to visit for a day-long visit. Belinda's teacher Miss Patty told Belinda and the other kids in the class that they were going somewhere very special for this field trip. They were going to a farm where lived some very unusual and special animals.

"How unusual can they be?" asked Matt, who was a boy in Belinda's class.

"Oh, you will see," said Miss Patty.

So they got into the bus with their lunches and off they drove. And they drove and they drove and they drove for what seemed like forever. They went over hills, down canyons, through mountain passes, over rivers, around lakes, and pretty soon they were surrounded by fields of corn and wheat and other crops, bumping along over dirt road.

Off in the distance the children saw a brown grain silo and a red barn with a weather vane on top. The farm had wooden fences all around a big field and they pulled up in front of it.

When they got off of the bus standing there in front of them was an old man with a gray mustache wearing a straw hat. He wore blue overalls with the a red handkerchief in the front pocket, and he wore a t-shirt underneath the overalls that was very faded. On his feet he wore muddy work-boots.

"Welcome to my farm," said the man with a big smile. "I'm Farmer John. At this here farm you will see the most interesting animals in the world."

The children looked around there were some of ducks and chicken wandering around outside the barn. And next to them there were some pigs in a pigpen. And past the ducks and chickens and pigs they saw some horses wandering around in the field.

"They all look pretty normal to me," said Matt. He flipped one of Belinda's pig tails.

"Hey!" said Belinda. "Knock it off or else maybe you should go live in the pigpen if you're going to act like a pig!"

Matt made a face at her and stuck out his tongue. Belinda just ignored him.

Farmer John said, "Follow me!"

The class followed him.

He took them to the barn, opened the big barn door and led them inside. There was a cow in the barn, eating from a pile of hay.

"Is anyone here thirsty?" asked Farmer John.

Nobody raise their hand.

"OK then," said Farmer John, "Is anyone here brave?"

Belinda knew that she was brave, because she had gone on many scary adventures, so she raised her hand.

"Young lady, do you like milk shakes?" asked Farmer John.

"Milk shakes?" responded Belinda. "Well, I positively love them!"

"Good," said Farmer John. "You'll like this."

He walked over to the cow, held a cup under her and started milking her pulling on the cow's udders. A frothy, milky substance came out from the cow and into the cup. He handed the cup to Belinda.

"Drink it," he said.

"Straight out of the cow?" asked Belinda.

"Trust me," said Farmer John. "You'll love it."

Belinda took a drink. It tasted delicious! It was sweet and sugary - the most delicious milkshake she had ever had!

"It's delicious!" Belinda gushed.

"I want some!" yelled Matt.

"Sorry, son." said Farmer John. "You didn't say you were thirsty or brave. Only Belinda raised her hand. Let's go outside. Maybe you'll be more brave with the other animals."

They walked out to a field where horses stood grazing on the grass.

Farmer John made a sound with his mouth that sounded like "knick, knick, knick" and a couple of the horses came running. Farmer John gave them some sugar cubes that he pulled from his pocket. All of the horses except for a big, black one went running back into the field. The black one just stood there. Matt made a face at it. It just stared at him.

"These horses love sugar cubes," he said.

"Yes," said the black horse, and all the children let out a gasp.

"Of course we love sugar cubes," the horse said. It looked straight at Matt, "You should mind your manners and not make faces at horses. It just makes you look silly."

Matt blushed and Belinda giggled.

"I told you this was an unusual farm," said Farmer John. "Go ahead and ask the horse any questions you want."

"That sounds like something a human would name us," said the horse disgustedly. "You think we're such simple creatures, but we really are very sophisticated and we have first names, last names and even sometimes middle names and we like to be called by them, thank you very much."

"Jonathan Allen Feldstein," said Belinda. "I have a question for you."

"Go ahead young lady," said the horse.

"Do you like it when people ride you?" asked Belinda.

Jonathan Allen Feldstein thought for a moment.

"Well," he said, "That depends on who the person is. Is she nice? Does she rub me on the nose, and pat me on the neck, and brush my hair? Does she tell me that I'm a good horse? Or does she hit me with a stick and kick me with their feet and yell at me to go faster and faster and call me a dumb horse if I do something wrong? Because if a person is nice then I love to give her a ride."

The horse looked at Belinda very intently.

"You look like a nice girl," he said. "Would you like to ride me?"

Belinda looked it Farmer John. "May I?" she asked.

"Sure," said Farmer John. "If Jonathan Allen Feldstein wants you to ride him, then you had better ride him. He's the boss."

Farmer John lifted Belinda onto the horse's back and said, "Hold him around the neck."

Jonathan Allen Feldstein started running. Belinda had never done so fast in her life! In fact, she was going so fast she thought she was going to fall off.

Belinda grabbed his mane with both hands and held on as tight as she could.

Jonathan ran all around the field and even did some jumps. Belinda had never had so much fun in her entire life. After a few minutes Jonathan trotted back to the fence where the other children waited with Ms. Patty and Farmer John.

Farmer John lifted Belinda off of the back of the horse. All of the other kids wanted to ride Jonathan Allen Feldstein.

Jonathan said, "No more rides today, only questions please."

So the children asked him some other questions about his favorite food and his favorite song and his favorite color.

The answers were apples, give said the little stream, and pink

"You like pink?" smirked Matt.

"Yes I do, young man," said Jonathan Allen Feldstein. "Do you have a problem with that?"

And then he glared at Matt and snorted and pawed at the ground angrily.

"N-n-n-, no sir!" said Matt.

"Good," said Jonathan Allen Feldstein, and he turned and ran back to the field. "Goodbye children!"

The children all yelled goodbye and waved.

Farmer John said, "Follow me. To see our last animal today you'll have to walk to the side of the barn."

They stood in front of the pigpen

"Have you ever seen a bird fly?" said Farmer John

"Yes," said all the children at the same time.

"Have you ever seen a bat fly?" he asked.

Some the children said they had and some of the children said they hadn't.

"Have you ever seen an airplane fly?" he asked.

All the children had.

"Now," said Farmer John, "Have any of you ever seen a pig fly?"

The children looked at one another in disbelief. No, they hadn't ever seen a pig fly.

Farmer John spun on his heel, faced the pigs, and yelled, "Pigs! In formation!"

The pigs immediately lined up in two lines, side by side, that came together in the middle, so that they looked like they spelled the letter V.

Farmer John yelled, "Gentlemen, start your engines.!"

The pigs started stamping their feet up and down up and down and making little grunting noises.

"On your mark," barked Farmer John. "Get set!"

"Go!" screamed Farmer John at the top of his lungs.

The little pigs started running as fast as they could right toward the side of the pen.

"They're going to run right into the side of the fence!" Belinda thought.

But just as they got to the edge of the pen they lifted up into the air, flew over the wall and up into the sky.

The children all cheered.

Higher and higher the pigs went into the air until they looked like specks in the sky, just like a flock of geese up by the clouds, flying in their V formation.

"How about that?" said Farmer John with a contented smile. "Isn't that the most amazing thing you've ever seen?"

"Yes," said all the children.

They had seen a cow that made milkshakes and a horse that talked, but the flying pigs were the most amazing. They were very impressed.

Farmer John said, "Well, they will be up there for awhile, and it's almost time for you to go. Do you have any questions for me?"

Belinda raised her hand and asked, "How come we have never heard about these amazing animals before?"

Farmer John said, "Well, I like to keep things very quiet. The animals like the peace and quiet on the farm. If everyone knew about them, they'd never be left alone. Besides, if I told anybody that I had flying pigs and talking horses and cows that make milk shakes would anybody believe me?"

"Probably not," said Belinda.

"That's right," Farmer John said. "So I just keep it a little secret. And I would appreciate it if you would keep that our little secret, too. Will you promise not to tell anybody about this?"

"Yes," agreed the children. Even Matt.

"In fact," said Ms. Patty, "The only way Farmer John agreed to have you come here was that I told him you are good at keeping secrets and that you could be trusted to not tell anybody about it."

She looked at her watch. "Let's go have lunch before we get on the bus.

They ate their lunches and then they got back into the bus. They yelled thank you and waved at Farmer John and he waved back and they drove away. As they were driving way through the fields they looked up in the sky and there very, very high among the clouds they saw a whole bunch of pigs flying around.